It turns out that while NVIDIA did not quite sell its soul to get its GPU into the first XBox, it did give up its right to go out unchaperoned. As part of the deal Microsoft can block any large purchase of NVIDIA shares by another company. If a company tries to purchase 30% or more of NVIDIA's shares then had and still has Microsoft has the right to put kybosh on the deal. A decade ago when the deal was first inked the agreement would have made a lot of sense to Microsoft; they were going to depend on NVIDIA's GPU and did not want to have another company buy a majority share in NVIDIA to get a grip on Microsoft's new gaming console. This deal makes NVIDIA rather unattractive to many companies as the investment of time and money necessary to set up a large deal could be utterly wasted if Microsoft decides it doesn't like the look of NVIDIA's new bedmate. The Inquirer has more here, and are currently awaiting a response to the article from Microsoft.

"AN UNLIKELY BETROTHAL between Microsoft and Nvidia has been uncovered that gives Microsoft the right of first and last refusal to buy Nvidia.

Microsoft entered into an agreement with Nvidia back in 2000 when the chip design outfit was brought in to work on the GPU of what would then become Microsoft's Xbox. That in itself isn't particularly surprising, but Information Week dug up a 10K filing with the Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC) in which Nvidia reported that Microsoft had first and last rights of refusal should a third party make an offer to buy 30 per cent or more of Nvidia's shares."

Thermaltake had its standard booth array of cases, coolers, keyboards, mice, headphones, etc but also had some new items to show us when we stopped by. The first was a new "Snow Edition" of the Level 10 GT chassis we reviewed back in April.

The case remains mostly unchanged with some USB 3.0 ports up front, 5 "EasySwap" HDD bays and room for some very long graphics cards. The white color is not paint but rather plastic injected so you won't have to worry about the paint scratching off.

Next up is the Frio GT CPU cooler - yes the above image is showing you a freaking CPU COOLER. It supports up to 300 watts of cooling and does so with an enormous amount of heatpipes, fins and airflow. This cooler will be available in Q4 and should cost you under $100.

Under the two big collections of fins you can see the heatpipes that move the energy from the CPU cores. Obviously you are going to need to check out your case and motherboard dimensions before picking up a cooler like this as I imagine there are going to be quite a few configurations that are incompatible.

Thermaltake is also going into the self-contained water cooling direction as well with the internally designed and built BigWater A80. Thermaltake claims this device will get better results than the competition by including some interesting airflow modifications. Expect this to be very price competitive and be available in Q3.

A big surprise at the booth was new USB-controlled power strip called the "Wireless USB Control Series". Besides offering some convenient USB outlets directly on the power strip, this surge protector also has a USB powered remote control that will turn on and off the "Energy Saver" ports with the push of a button.

The remote sits in a little stand on top of your desk so you can power offer your display, printer or other devices all at once and without reaching behind anything. For those of you that want to go green then this will allow you to do so for a modest cost of $30-40 later this year.

There is no giving up in the PC Perspective Forums, a member may have just had a medically licensed vacuum cleaner suck out the contents of their wallet and when trying to relax in front of the PC afterwards found a dead monitor awaiting them instead of the comfort they were looking for; they do not give up. Instead like the dedicated enthusiast that we all are, the PC was disassembled to find the root of the cause, in this case a PSU with bulging capacitors, and then they posted to our forums which has gathered several informative replies on how to properly replace the bad caps. You can also take inspiration from this member who is still working with an old Biostar board based on the nForce750a chipset or from this member who is trying to determine if their screen is broken or if it is their GPU that is to blame.

Since we can't all attend Computex 2011 in the flesh we have to content ourselves with what is posted on the web. Ryan and Ken are representing PC Perspective over in Taipei and all of their coverage can be found on this handy page.

"With staffers both on the show floor and back at home watching things from afar, we've produced some fairly exhaustive Computex coverage this week. Here's a handy list of the highlights, from major announcements like Microsoft's Windows 8 reveal to geekier developments like Lucid's work on Virtu for AMD platforms."

The Parrot Zikmu by Starck (not affiliated with Stark Enterprises) is apparently for the serious audiophile as they seem to be 1600 of whatever your local dollar equivalent is. You are probably asking yourself why you would possibly want to spend that much money on a pair of WiFi/Bluetooth speakers with a built in iThing/A2DP smartphone dock and that is perfectly understandable. The design of the speakers allows for 360o sound, which results in the lack of a single sweet spot for these speakers. Instead no matter where in a room you are in relation to the speakers, you will be in the sweet spot. t-break describes them as being worth every penny, so head over to check them out even if you'd never spend that amount of money on a speaker system.

"The Parrot Zikmu, or Parrot by Starck as they’re more commonly referred to as, are a pair of wireless stereo loudspeakers that you can connect to via Bluetooth and WiFi. Designed to be used primarily for your iPhone and iPods, the Zikmu can be connected to any Bluetooth capable smartphone using A2DP, as well as Macs and PCs through WiFi. Don’t get scared by the price yet, let me tell you why they’re actually worth it."

"VR-Zone was in attendance for this historic Windows 8 unveiling event to selected partners and press at W Hotel Taipei, COMPUTEX 2011. Microsoft showed off its new Windows 8 UI design and a few x86/ARM prototype devices from its partners."

We can now see a 1:29 long preview of StarCraft II : Heart of the Swarm at Rock, Paper, SHOTGUN. In it we learn about evolving Banelings and Zerglings, the importance of Yeti DNA and the apparent focus on heros and their upgradability. What is not clear is who you will be playing; Kerrigan building a reformed swarm, Raynor and his marines squashing bugs and Eldar wannabes or maybe even Nova and her ghosts? Maybe you play all three, building up and defending a base in one mission and destroying it in another? Check the video in HD to get the most of the sneak peek.

"Following last week’s leaked cinematic teaser we now have some actual footage of Starcraft II’s second episode in action, and you can check that out below. We’re expecting the game itself to turn up in the first half of next year, and it could be a rather different hero-focused experience, if the previews are anything to go by. Which I guess they must be, since they’re about the game and all.

There is big news from AMD this morning, in addition to the Trinity news we saw from Computex they have purchased the makers of gDEBugger and have opened a new R&D centre in Tel Aviv. gDEBugger is a debugger for OpenGL and OpenCL for Windows, Mac and Linux and hopefully spells a resurgence for AMD's ailing professional level FirePro graphics cards. The Cayman family's two professional cards, the AMD FirePro V7900 and V5900 have just come onto the market to compete against NVIDIA's far more famous Quadro lineup and lag behind in raw performance but not in performance per dollar. Perhaps a strong feature set, including custom debugging tools will help AMD become a more attractive choice for graphics professionals. Drop by NGOHQ for more information on the purchase and the R&D centre.

"AMD announced the opening of a new research and development (R&D) center in Israel, located in the Tel-Aviv area. A world class team of highly talented software engineers is working on the latest heterogeneous computing technologies for the next generation of parallel computing platforms. This announcement follows AMD’s recent acquisition of Graphic Remedy, a renowned Israeli startup company specializing in development tools for heterogeneous computing and 3D graphics.

"We are extremely excited to have this new team on board working on AMD’s latest technologies and future products.” said Ben Bar-Haim, corporate vice president, software development, AMD."

As the fastest performing single server solution on the market, this Z-Drive R4 equipped platform significantly accelerates demanding transactional workloads and reduces latency across a broad array of enterprise applications.

"The Z-Drive R4 enables our data center clients to maximize performance in the industry standard 4K file size, and this achievement with Colfax International demonstrates the raw performance benefits and latency reductions that OCZ PCIe SSDs can deliver over multi-terabyte device densities in a single 3U server," said Ryan Petersen, CEO of OCZ Technology Group. "We are proud to enable our clients to deliver servers and storage arrays which provide the highest performance, maximum capacity, and lowest latency available to data centers today."

"We have been working closely with OCZ to create a ready to deploy server solution with both exceptional performance and reliability, all within a compact and energy efficient footprint," said Gautam Shah, President and CEO of Colfax International. "OCZ's Z-Drive PCIe SSDs add considerable performance and we are thrilled to achieve this significant 4K Write IOPS benchmark, as well as making this industry leading total solution available to our enterprise clients."

This demonstration highlighted the Z-Drive R4's ability to offer industry-leading performance and efficiency for enterprise clients seeking the benefits of SSDs over hard drives. This total solution will be available for pre-order from Colfax International in multiple built-to-order configurations, and will ship in the coming weeks following the Computex event.

Today, Corsair announces new additions to its Professional and Professional Gold series, with the HX1050 and AX650 respectively.

The HX1050 is 80 PLUS Silver certified, and is rated to deliver 88% efficiency or more at 50% load. Further, it is capable of outputting up to 1,050 continuous watts of power. The Professional Series model includes a fixed ATX 12V connector as well as modular cables for the remaining connectors.

The Professional Series Gold addition; however, is capable of 650 watts of continuous power. The AX650 is 80 PLUS Gold certified, and can deliver more than 90% energy efficiency at 50% load. Utilizing a fully modular, flat cable design, the AX650 eases cable management issues, and delivers “unflinching voltage stability,” according to Corsair.

The HX1050 is available for purchase now from authorized retailers worldwide for a MSRP of $239 USD. On the other hand, the AX650 will become available for purchase in June worldwide, and will carry an MSRP of $169 USD. You can read more about the power supply lines here.

Paul Otellini, the current CEO of Intel, has gone on record stating that Intel has little interest in fabbing non-Intel based chips on its manufacturing line. That makes a lot of sense for those who watch the back end of the CPU business but it doesn't seem logical to those who don't. The reasoning is based on licensing and the habit of the technology industry to use Intellectual Property licensing agreements and lawyers the same way Jason uses his machete. If Intel starts fabbing their own ARM chips with none of their own IP inside, then it leaves an opening later on for ARM to go after Intel if any of their new products seem derivative of ARM's IP. It also makes an entire production line at Intel dependant on ARM sales.

So, why did Intel's CFO Stacey Smith not repeat that same emphatic denial when asked a similar question? In her case she was asked if they would fab Apple-designed ARM-based A5 CPUs with Intel's 22nm IP inside. Suddenly Intel only has to design the core of the chip and does not have to license any of ARM's IP as they are only providing the production line. As well, Intel would be licensing their own IP to Apple which brings them money and can the IP license can function as a hostage down the road; think the court case involving NVIDIA's ability to design chipsets for Intel chips with integrated memory controllers. Get more at The Register.

"Parsing the statements of both Intel execs, however, reveals that their statements are not, in fact, as contradictory as they may at first seem. Otellini stated that "We have no intention to use our license again to build ARM," while Smith spoke only of fabbing someone else's custom design – and if that design included an ARM core, the third party would pay the licensing fee."

It is that time of year again where the staff at PC Perspective wades through the moist air of Taipei, Taiwan to bring you the latest news, videos and updates from the world of technology and computing hardware. This marks my 10th appearance on the island of Taiwan, but Ken's first so it should be an interesting experience for both of us.

Yes, this scary girl is here again too.

This year we have a surprising amount of expected hardware to investigate starting with an onslaught of AMD-based technology. The AMD 990FX chipset will be out and about in force from the likes of ASUS, MSI, ECS and others while the Fusion APUs will be flaunted in notebooks and likely even some "surprise" Llano designs. Intel's Z68 chipset, though already launched, will still be a focus but the company will surprise many with a dramatic move into the world of mobile computing with the Atom line.

You should of course keep an eye on the home page here at pcper.com but also feel free to bookmark the URL http://pcper.com/computex where all of our Computex-specific news will be filtered to.

Following in the footsteps of just about every RAM vendor except for Crucial GeIL is now making mice; though they chose under a pseudonym. The EpicGear MeduZa Hybrid Dual Sensor Technology Gaming Mouse is not quite as big as its name, hidden in that name is an interesting feature though. The MeduZa dual sensor has both an optical and a laser sensor, with the optical sensor ranging from 400DPI up to 3200DPI and the laser programmable up to 6000DPI. VR-Zone can't tell you how it performs yet but hopefully we will know after Computex.

"Memory maker GeIL will be branching out into the gaming peripheral industry under the brand name EpicGear. Their first product will be, surprise surprise, a gaming mouse. According to EpicGear, this isn't just any other gaming mouse with lights and a gazillion buttons. The EpicGear MeduZa will be first in the world to incorporate Hybrid Dual Sensor Technology - marketing-speak for both optical and laser sensors. A switch on the underside will allow on-the-fly changing between optical, laser, and HDST (combined) sensor modes. According to them, HDST combines the speed of laser sensors and the stability of optical sensors to provide the best experience, reducing the problems of jitter, skip and drift."

AMD's plans for 2011 are making the rounds as geeks love to share things that they shouldn't have access to yet. A set of slides from a presentation has hit the net, covering the positioning AMD sees for its upcoming products in the current market. AMD Vision is back in a big way with four separate logos running from HD Internet to Ultimate and even stickers denoting how many cores and GPUs are within a machine.

Several new software enhancements are also mentioned such as AMD Steady Video which is intended to remove any shakes or wiggles from video posted to the net by someone with an unsteady hand. AMD AllDay Power demonstrates the power saving features that are unique to AMD ... at least in AMDs mind ... and they tout over 10hrs usage with their upcoming products.

On the hardware side is a new name, Desna, which is AMD's answer to the tablet wars. This will be a DX11 APU which will compete to power the next generation of tablets. Hardware Accelerated Flash support certainly makes it stand out, as does enhancements to productivity software such as Office and the list of support for Win7 features. Check out the full deck of slides at NGOHQ.

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — May XX, 2011 — NVIDIA is pulling out all the stops for the highly-anticipated launch of Duke Nukem Forever on June 11, 2011. Today, we’re announcing that we’re giving one extremely lucky gamer the chance to win an all-expenses VIP trip for two to the official Gearbox launch event in Dallas, Texas. (Contest open to U.S. and Canada (excluding Quebec) residents only.)

Sure to be one of the coolest – and maybe the rowdiest – parties of the summer (it’s a Duke party, after all!), the Gearbox Community Day/Duke Nukem Launch Event will blow into Dallas Texas at the Palladium Ballroom. If you’re deemed worthy enough to hang with the King and his court, here’s some of the cool stuff you’re in for:

Test your metal playing Duke Nukem Forever alongside the Gearbox crew

Rub elbows with the Gearbox and NVIDIA development teams

Party at an exclusive NVIDIA reception before the launch event (Monday, June 13)

Hear from the people behind some of Gearbox’s biggest games: Duke Nukem Forever, Borderlands, Aliens: Colonial Marines, Brothers in Arms, and more

Oh yea, one thing...you need to be 21 years old to party with Duke. That’s just how he rolls. Sorry kids!

By the way, be sure your PC system is cranked up and ready for Duke. To help, NVIDIA and EVGA have teamed up to bring you Duke’s “Fully Loaded Package,” a special edition Duke Nukem Forever bundle that includes a full PC copy of Duke Nukem Forever for the PC, an EVGA GeForce® GTX 560 graphic card, a limited edition DNF art book and mouse pad, and a custom Duke Nukem “Radioactive” belt buckle.

That should complete your arsenal, giving you everything you’ll need to wipe out aliens that have been stealing Earth’s women and drinking Duke’s beer. Get Duke’s Fully Loaded Package now.

But wait, there’s one more thing….

As NVIDIA’s special guest, you’ll be one of the first gamers on the planet to see the unveiling of the brand new, official Duke Nukem Forever mod. This bad boy packs more NVIDIA GeForce GTX power than a Devastator, features a mind-blowing Duke-themed chassis, and will show Duke in all his glory in breathtaking 3D with NVIDIA 3D Vision technology. You haven’t seen a mod like this before…anywhere!

Antec's Soundscience Rockus 3D are a set of 2.1 speakers, a pair of small satellite speakers in a shape reminiscent of a hand held loud speaker and a subwoofer measuring 14" x 8" x 11". On the back are analog and digital inputs, TOSLINK as opposed to SPDIF which makes sense on a 2.1 speaker system, as well as a switch to toggle between three bass modes. As for the 3D button, which supposedly uses digital signal processing to enhance your listening experience; The Tech Report were not quite sure how.

"Much like Corsair, Antec has delved into the audio world with its first set of PC speakers. How did it fare?"

According to The Inquirer, at 12:15 GMT (+1 hr thanks to daylight savings), Skype suffered a major network failure that seems to not only have taken out the Skype VoIP client but also impacted the availablitity of their site. As of right now there is no work around or solution, Skype is investigating the cause but for now other clients are your best bet for communicating over the web.

Since this has occured 2 weeks after Microsoft purchased Skype, speculation is running rampant that this is some sort of planned interruption. It seems a little far fetched to think that even a company with as much financial power as Microsoft would dump $8.5 billion just to shut down a competing service. They are going to want some return on their investment and simply using Skype's patents, some of which are still under review now or its infrastructure to prop up Sharepoint is not going to return that money. Ad generated revenue on the sidebar of the client and hooking this up to Microsoft's various social and gaming applications seems more likely, which implies that shutting down Skype is the last thing on their mind.

"VOICE OVER IP (VoIP) and chat service Skype has crashed throughout the world and continues to crash on login, leading many to suspect that its recent acquisition by Microsoft is a definite disaster.

The service began to crash around 12:15pm UK time, kicking people offline and freezing when they tried to log back in again. Other users who remained online had difficulties making calls. Restarting your PC or reinstalling Skype has no effect, as the problem is clearly on Skype's end."